Bullets - Keep Firing

[Mike Lowry]

Welcome back to business as usual.
Thank You for consistently showing up to lift up and support this organization dedicated to greatness!
For the past few seasons we have dedicated our energy to the growth of our front-court.
We brought in Larry Nance.
All he did was make All League First Team.
We're looking at a huge jump for Buck Williams this season.
We added Marquez Johnson in free agency, and he is filling a big hole in our line-up.
We think our starting 5 will compete with any in the league.
Our players are in their natural positions, and we don't have to force them away from their strengths.
By Adding John Bagley, Juwann Oldham, and Tom Chambers we put some dynamic depth on our bench.
Our expectations for this season are sky high!
And we feel great about having flexibility with our cap situation that you just won't see from other teams who are going to compete this season.
We love to see some of the juggernauts, including the defending champs take a step back to reload, just as we're gaining momentum.
We feel like the next 2 seasons will offer us a better opportunity at a ship than we have seen thus far, and we're trying to capitalize on that.
We won the conference 2 seasons ago and lost in the second round.
We won the division last season and made the Conference Finals.
This year, we just want to be consistent, and take the next step.

Our starting 5 will be obvious:
Larry Nance
Buck Williams
Marquez Johnson
John Long
John Lucas

We're open for questions

[AngryBanana]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: what was the thought in going out and getting Chambers? He has a year left on his deal and you have a great starting front court, and Oldham off the bench.


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[WigNosy]

Steve Duin, the Oregonian...

This team struggled to win on the road during the preseason. How do you intend to make sure this trend doesn't carry over into the regular season?

[Mike Lowry]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: what was the thought in going out and getting Chambers? He has a year left on his deal and you have a great starting front court, and Oldham off the bench.

Signing Chambers was as much about the competition not having him as it was about us adding him.
He has a great upside and provides starting level talent off the bench.
Everyone knows we're not shy about bidding for talent.
We're always going to look to add players of his caliber.
We're thrilled to have been able to work our deal out.

[logpmess]

We saw Marques Johnson come off of the bench last season in Chicago. Has he talked to you about stepping back into the starters roll? What sort of excitement and inhibitions is he demonstrating to the team?

[Eazy P]

Larry Nance has been great, Do you see him taking the next step of leading your team to a championship?

[BigDaddyd8720]

Picks Emmington of the SLOE Gazette,

One of the fascinating things with your team is how you're constantly changing things up, whether it be gameplanes, depth charts, roster moves, etc. Do you ever feel like you may be over thinking some decisions at times or do you think this gives you the best chance to win with your rosters each season?

[greepleairport]

Tom Chambers coming off the bench demonstrates an insane level of talent on your team. Do you think, if he and others on your team played positionless basketball, that he would be 6th best? Or would it be worth exploring a different starting position for him and sending someone else to the 6th man role?

[Mike Lowry]

Steve Duin, the Oregonian...

This team struggled to win on the road during the preseason. How do you intend to make sure this trend doesn't carry over into the regular season?

I have to say that something I expect to have this year is cohesion.
Since I have been in D.C. we haven't really had that, but this year my strategy seems to fit well and I think this group will pick up momentum.
Not to mention the road schedule wasn't exactly a cake walk.
I think we pick up a few on the road this season though.

[Mike Lowry]

We saw Marques Johnson come off of the bench last season in Chicago. Has he talked to you about stepping back into the starters roll? What sort of excitement and inhibitions is he demonstrating to the team?

Well, we have been inquiring about Marquez for several seasons now, and we're thrilled to finally have landed him.
If anybody was paying attention in the second round of the playoffs they saw what we always knew Marquez was capable of and we expect to offer him every opportunity to showcase those skills extensively.

[Mike Lowry]

Larry Nance has been great, Do you see him taking the next step of leading your team to a championship?

That is certainly the plan.
We saw the whole discussion on the discord, and we were fairly upset that we couldn't train Larry this season, but we don't see him taking a step backwards from the center position on that All League 1st Team.
That led to a Division win, a playoff series win, which resulted in a Conference Finals appearance, so we're hopeful that we keep building with him and Buck leading the way.

[Mike Lowry]

Picks Emmington of the SLOE Gazette,

One of the fascinating things with your team is how you're constantly changing things up, whether it be gameplanes, depth charts, roster moves, etc. Do you ever feel like you may be over thinking some decisions at times or do you think this gives you the best chance to win with your rosters each season?

Mostly, when making those decisions, it doesn't feel like overthinking.
I'm trying to adjust to aspects of the game that are hurting our performance.
But when we don't have the personnel to adjust, we might try to be creative to cover weakness.
This season is honestly the first since I have been a GM where I feel we don't have to do that.
I expect to allow our strengths to guide us to the top.

[Mike Lowry]

Tom Chambers coming off the bench demonstrates an insane level of talent on your team. Do you think, if he and others on your team played positionless basketball, that he would be 6th best? Or would it be worth exploring a different starting position for him and sending someone else to the 6th man role?

I REALLY don't like the idea of trying something like that.
I know it seems that Buck or Tom might have enough speed, close to it, to slide into the SF position and physically abuse smaller defenders, but their respective skillsets are not designed for that.
Not to mention, we think very highly of Marquez Johnson at SF and John Long at SG.
That fact that we are one of VERY few teams with real depth in the front-court is something we are counting on for the playoffs.